As I enter the 3rd trimester of my second pregnancy, I have begun to think a lot about the challenges I faced at the end of my last pregnancy. I guess in a way, I am gearing up for battle to try and be more prepared to face the struggle ahead.
I haven't really spoken about it much publicly, but those who know me well know that I had severe preeclampsia when my first son, was supposed to still be growing happily in my belly.
Around 32 weeks I started swelling. Nothing extreme, just enough that I had to take my wedding rings off and graduated exclusively to wearing flip-flops. I brought this up with my doctor who was not concerned. It was summer after all and I had low... Read More

January 7, 2014 baby girl born color of baby blue she did turn to normal color. Mother and baby go home; when baby is about five or six days old, mother was taken to hospital to emergency room. The mother had three seizures back-to-back... mother admitted to ICU. Mother had a heart attack. The mother showed all the signs of preeclampsia at hospital where baby was born but was sent home. Now in ICU... in the emergency room blood pressure 257 over 110; mother is on meds for blood pressure and heart. Before all this the mother had no problems with high blood pressure or her heart. Baby girl is doing fine so far and mother is still on meds. I am the baby's grandmother and her mother's... Read More

My husband & I found out we were expecting our first child together in July 2013, we were surprised yet thrilled. It was a great pregnancy until my 5th month of pregnancy, my husband started monitoring my blood pressure and there were times when it was elevated, I let my doctor know of the elevations, they said it wasn't running high in the office so they wasn't concerned about it, so another month went by with the same elevations until one day when I was almost 7 months, I awaken feeling sluggish & tired, just bad....so I went to the hospital to get checked on and low & behold, my blood pressure registered at 202/113 so... Read More

In Spring of 2012, I was pregnant for the first time and with twins! My husband and I were happily planning for the arrival of 2 little girls, due in August. Then at 21 weeks, my feet began to swell at the end of the day. At my visit to the OB/GYN that week, I questioned the swelling as well as the 125/80 BP I had. My baseline BP had been 105/60. I was told it was within normal range, and the swelling was also dismissed as non-concerning. On Easter Sunday, 22.5 weeks, I could no longer fit comfortably in my shoes, and my BP on a home monitoring machine was 135/85. I knew I had an appointment in a few days with Maternal Fetal Medicine, and convinced myself I would be told all was ok. But... Read More

Okay so hear is my story:
My name is Brittany and I'm 26 years old.
Baby 1 (2006): Quite an uneventful pregnancy, besides severe morning sickness and in and out of the hospital in the beginning to be re hydrated. I had an appt on my due date Aug 7 2006 and it was THEN... Read More

To my surprise at 43 I became pregnant! Terrified of all the issues that could happen at my age with pregnancy, I made sure I followed all the suggestions to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Everything was normal and healthy at 18 weeks so I allowed myself to be excited for the first time! Words can not express my feelings of joy and pride to finally be pregnant after thinking all my life I could not conceive. Around 20 weeks my body began to swell and I felt so bloated all the time nothing felt comfortable about my body. My OB at the time reassured me this was all a normal part of pregnancy. My BP was slightly high but nothing alarming according to my care provider. At 23 weeks, while at a... Read More

I had severe pre-e in my previous pregnancy in 2009. My daughter was born at 28 weeks at 1 lb and 4oz. I did not develop HELLP syndrome but just got high blood pressure, swelling, and protein in the urine. Since my liver enzymes and kidneys fuctions were decreasing I got an emergency C-section. Today my daughter is 5 years old and very healthy.
Due to the conditions with my daughter, I waited to conceive again. In Sept 2013, I was told that I was pregnant. I asked my OB/GYN (who was my OB with my first daughter) about any new precautions/procedures I should do for this second round. He told me no. In week 22, I went to the hospital with upper back pain. Long... Read More

The Birth of Sam"The Brave"
Written 4/25/13 (12 days postpartum)
This is going to be really long. And I'm not sure who will read it. But before all the details become fuzzy, I wanted to write the experience as I remember it.... Read More

I suffered from a ruptured aortic valve brain aneurysm Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) on September 12, 2012 (at 41 yrs. old) and I thank God every day that I am mentally and physically fully recovered! Emotionally, I am still working on that.
Here's my story. After giving birth to my daughter on August 27, 2012, I became very ill two (2) days later. My organs started shutting down, my blood pressure went extremely high and my platelet count went extremely low. After two (2) days of tests, I was diagnosed with Pregnancy HELLP Syndrome and immediately transferred from the... Read More

My pregnancy was a surprise, Brad and I had never planned to have children. I knew very little about the realities of pregnancy. I had never really looked into what can and does happen to a womans body while it incubates a precious little life. If you also have not, its a crazy bunch of stuff and purely amazing and disgusting at the same time, a bit like motherhood but that is another story all together. I had gestational diabetes and was being monitored weekly due to the medication that I had to take.
I went to work Tuesday August 28th, like one does when they are employed. I wasn't having any significant symptoms. Moderate swelling, a little edema but it seemed to mostly go... Read More

Let me start out by saying that I'm an older Mom (had my son at 40), and I've had high blood pressure since I was in my 20's.
When I first got pregnant, the first thing my Dr did was take me off my BP meds. He told me that my BP would naturally go down during my second trimester, so I would be fine until then- and I was. But keep in mind that I monitored my BP from home, at least once a day. Everything was going soooo smooth, and I was getting very excited for my 3rd trimester!
At about 7 months, I noticed that my BP was gradually rising. I brought this up to my OB at each appt and she never seemed concerned. Her medical assistant would take my BP (which was... Read More

My husband and I started trying to have a baby for 5 years. During this time we visited fertility specialists and ran countless tests. We finally became pregnant naturally and were so ecstatic!! Unfortunately, the happiness did not last long as I miscarried at 12 weeks. After miscarrying my husband pretty much gave up but I was 39 and I felt like we still had a little more time to try. Luckily I conceived and was super happy and careful. Monitored everything I ate, did light exercise and rested whenever possible. At 26 weeks I went in for my check up and I had elevated BP readings 145 /90. My GYN was concerned sent me home on bed rest for the remainder of the week and... Read More

It was a normal Wednesday. I dont even remember anything special about the morning - I went to work as usual. Left in the early afternoon to make the trip to my prenatal appointment. I was feeling especially large and definitely pregnant. I remember making a comment to a co-worker on the way out the door that it was the last of my "two-week" appointments before I would move to the one-a-week ones - which was very exciting!
I met my husband in the parking garage and we walked into the office building. I checked in and sat down. I remember feeling normal. I got a text about a piece of foam I was trying to get for the babys nursery and the daybed we had in there. ... Read More

It was January 28th, my blood test came back positive and I was pregnant! Something I never thought was possible. I had two donated embryos transferred just eleven days before and now my dream of being pregnant and experiencing the joys that came with that were mine. My pregnancy was difficult from the start. I developed severe morning sickness which lasted 15 weeks, then developed a terrible stomach bug that sent my health into another downward spiral for several more weeks. I never developed an appetite until I was around 22 weeks pregnant. I finally began to feel better and gain weight. At my 28 week appointment everything looked great. I had... Read More

I'd had a friend who had been watching me very closely after we found out we were pregnant, she kept saying that she thought I was swelling too soon. I had asked the doctor MANY times about it and she just said I was fine but soon it was getting SO bad I wasn't really fitting in clothes that SHOULD have gotten me to 40 weeks (I like to prepare). The TED hose didnt seem to be helping and eventually I had coworkers doing a double-take as I walked down the hall, barely recognizing me.
About a week before my next check-up I just felt like something was terribly wrong. The best I can describe was that I felt like I was a ticking time bomb, SOMETHING was about to happen and it wasn't... Read More

I'm the mother of 3 young adults now, ages 24, 22 and 18. :-)
I had preeclamsia and HeLLP syndrome with my first and last pregnancies (which are my 2 sons). I did not have those complications with my daughter (now age 22), but I did have "undiagnosed" gestational diabetes with her.
Pregnancy #1: I was "Borderline" Gestational diabetic with him, and carried him full term. My water broke and I was not having much in the way of contractions, so my doctor had me wait 24 hours and then I went into the hospital and they put me on pitosin to get my contrations going. I started going down-hill during labor. I started running a fever, so they checked me (and the baby once he was... Read More

One day on our way to our final sign off of the wedding venue, my husband and I spoke about kids... not the first time though, but we both decided that we didn't want to wait. We have no reason.
That made me so excited cause I could not wait to be be a mommy. Well our wish came true not long after we returned from our honeymoon. All the normal signs was there and me and hubby decided that we gonna buy a home test... reading that the best time to do the test was first thing in the morning so we waited. That next morning bright and early I got up and did the test... few seconds went by the minutes and there it... Read More

When I was 7 months pregnant (32 weeks) I had nausea, feet & hand swelling, shortness of breath & acidity. My doctor had told me that they were the symptoms of pregnancy. Even my blood pressure was normal.
On November 2013, I had severe pre-eclampsia which led to convulsions, headache, blurring of vision & pulmonary edema (fluid in my lungs) and was rushed to ER. My condition was so bad that they could not wait to give steroids for the maturity of my babys lungs. I was given Magnesium sulfate to prevent the occurrence of seizures. The baby was delivered through... Read More

I am a 34 year old mother of 2. I say a mother of 2, because, even though you see only child in my arms, I have the privilege of having one with wings.
My daughter was born on June 25, 2009 via emergency c-section. Looking back now, it seems like a dream. I was oblivious to what was happening, but could see the fear in my husbands eyes. I remember trying to concentrate on hearing her, I couldn't wait to hear her first cries! It took a while, but there it was, my baby was here and perfect in every way. It's not the birth I had planned on, it's not the time she was expected. But, when the Dr. called and said it was the day, all the planning went out the window! I had... Read More

My pregnancy started like many others, I am sure. My husband and I were excited, scared, worried and in love. As our daughter grew, I went to all my routine Doctor's appointments with normal blood pressure readings, healthy weight gain and a strange feeling that our daughter would come early. My family has a history of itty bitty babies so when she was estimated to be 4lbs 3oz at 35 weeks, we weren't terribly worried but the yellow flag was up. Less than a week later, my right arm felt a little odd while I was trying to sleep so I shifted my weight and went to bed only to wake up around 1am with intense discomfort to my upper abdomen and my right shoulder was truly in pain. ... Read More

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Privacy Policy

Normal web site usageThe Preeclampsia Foundation has a firm commitment to Internet privacy. You can visit most portions of preeclampsia.org without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. The only information we collect from a normal web site visit is the name of your Internet Service Provider, the browser and type of machine you are using, the web site that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time you request them. We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of the site to our visitors.

Collection of personally identifiable informationThe Preeclampsia Foundation may collect names, email addresses and other personally identifiable data about visitors when such data is voluntarily submitted to preeclampsia.org. For example, our site uses forms for visitors to register or make a donation online. Contact information from these forms is used to send information about preeclampsia or Foundation activity to our visitors. Financial information is used to bill or provide receipts to visitors in connection with their donations. To ensure the security of credit card and personal information, this Web site employs industry-standard security methods, including the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol for the encryption of transmitted data. The Preeclampsia Foundation goes to great lengths to protect the confidentiality and integrity of any personal information you share with us over the Internet. In instances where we may partner with medical organizations to conduct research on preeclampsia, your participation may be expressly requested, but your permission would be required prior to sharing personally identifiable data with authorized medical organizations.

The Preeclampsia Foundation makes every effort to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies.

Donor Privacy PolicyThe Preeclampsia Foundation does not sell or otherwise disclose user information outside the organization. We will not sell, trade or share a donor's personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.

Should you wish to review or make corrections to your personal information, please click Login/Join at the top of the page and enter your login information. A page titled "Edit Your Details" will appear in the main body of the page where you can view and make corrections. If you wish to be removed entirely from our database, please email info@preeclampsia.org.

CookiesWe do not use cookies on the majority of our website pages. The donate pages do use "per session" cookies. Per session cookies last only for the life of your current browser load and use no permanent storage on your hard drive. The use of per session cookies is very common in modern Web sites.